Afridis

in life goes straight and turn right

[Moeed Pirzada @MoeedNj]

Tragically True!

[Jemima Goldsmith @Jemima_Khan]

Prime Minister @andyburnham and Foreign Secretary @Ed_Miliband : how much longer will Britain remain silent?

For three years the father of my two sons, and Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has been brutally penalised by his political opponents, in a personal vendetta by Army Chief, Asim Munir,  which according to the UN,  amounts to torture and which  is now taking a potentially fatal toll on his physical and mental health. 

He has endured 3 years of solitary confinement. For nearly ten months now his family has been denied contact with him. He has been deprived of the most basic human contact, denied access to books, lawyers and doctors.

The international human-rights standards are unequivocal. Under the UN’s Nelson Mandela Rules, solitary confinement lasting more than 15 consecutive days is prohibited and amounts to torture.

He has endured this treatment not for 15 days, but for three years.

Pakistan’s own Supreme Court has now intervened: ordering comprehensive  medical treatment, access to his personal doctor, regular family visits and twice-weekly calls with his sons.

Yet those orders are being defied.

This is no longer simply a Pakistani political matter. It is a human-rights emergency.

He has deep and lifelong ties to Britain. He studied at Oxford University, captained Oxford University cricket and spent years playing county cricket in England. His relationship with this country stretches back more than half a century. His charitable activities were internationally recognised, and  include building the only free cancer hospital in Pakistan as well as a university.

His sons, my two boys, Sulaiman and Kasim, are British citizens. They have been forced to watch their father’s health decline from thousands of miles away, prevented from visiting him, denied visas, publicly threatened by government officials with arrest themselves, and even denied court-mandated regular phone calls. 

I have repeatedly appealed to the UK government to intervene. Purported attempts at back channelling have evidently failed. The previous Foreign Secretary @DavidLammy informed me in writing that Britain would not  intervene if my sons, British citizens, are arrested when they travel to Pakistan to visit their father. 

@FCDOGovUK: Britain must now speak out publicly and unequivocally. Demand that Pakistan comply with its own Supreme Court;  restore Imran Khan’s medical access, his right to see his family, end his prolonged isolation and uphold his fundamental human rights.

Pakistan is a Commonwealth country. Britain has a long and proud tradition of standing against arbitrary detention, inhumane treatment and the denial of fundamental rights. Those principles mean very little if we invoke them only selectively and neglect them when inconvenient.
This an appeal to the new Burnham government  to please now do the right thing.

[The Random Guy @RandomTheGuy_]

Give that green parrot an Oscar right now... The dramatic delayed reaction was absolute perfection 😂🦜

[Dan Qayyum @DanQayyum]

https://t.co/Q3ZRsR9cfL

[Suze @Suzesuesuzie]

@DahliaKurtz These two children in Gaza. Murdered by Israeli Nazis. Two brothers who didn’t have a bomb shelter. Israeli Nazis shot they while trying to protect each other. We’re where your fucking tears for them and every other child murdered in Palestine by your demonic IDF!

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Ah the Israeli defense ‘we’re investigating it’. Said investigation never happens/never ends, media moves on.

Rinse and repeat.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Over 500 Iranians have been killed since Saturday. They lie like the rest of us breathe.

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

The massacre of at least 165 Iranian schoolgirls and their teachers, largely ignored or sanitized by the genocidal western media exposes the real objectives of this aggression by two rogue nuclear pow,ers. https://t.co/I9elWDV4GO

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

What about the 150 Iranian school girls?

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Our media is broken.
https://t.co/20UUcW06TK

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

The joke is that a ceasefire in the Middle East means Palestinians cease and Israelis fire and that is literally what Israel is doing. They bomb and kill whenever they like and then they say ‘ok ceasefire is back on.’

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

The guy hated a mosque and had radioactive materials. Sky describes him in its tweet as a science nerd. Our media is broken. Islamophobia is mainstreamed.
https://t.co/20UUcW06TK

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Every day they kill dozens and most people are silent.

If you sat silently through the worst crime of our lifetime, doesn’t expect the rest of us to ever take you seriously on anything ever again.